From being canceled in 2006, Malcolm In The Middle is raring to go as Disney+ releases its revival series Malcolm In The Middle: Life’s Still Unfair after nearly two decades.
The original show stars Malcolm, played by Frankie Muniz, a teen prodigy learning how to survive with his dysfunctional, small-minded family. The show lasted for seven seasons before being cut due to budget.
The continuation brings all the characters back together for Hal (Bryan Cranston) and Lois’s (Jane Kaczmarek) 40th anniversary party. However, Malcolm had distanced himself from his family after he left for college twenty years ago, fulfilling his dream of a quiet and peaceful life with his daughter, Leah (Keeley Karsten), and his girlfriend, Tristan (Kiana Madeira). He had also never told Leah or Tristan of his family, having claimed they were dead; likewise, he never told his family about his child and partner. Furious with the news, Lois, Hal, and Malcolm’s five siblings try to come to terms with the realization in their own ways, creating arguments and growing tension just days before the big party.
The sitcom brings new and old characters to the limited series, consisting of four half-hour episodes, creating a sense of nostalgia for longtime fans. Greer Annibale, freshman, said, “All the characters were the same; it was nice that nothing was out of the ordinary character-wise and plot-wise. The show has always been a comfort for me, and I think this continuation of the first series really does it justice.” Annibale isn’t alone in her opinion. Soap Central mentions that “[W]ith the original cast returning and new faces joining, the revival feels less like a reboot and more like a family reunion that no one can avoid.”
Jane Kaczmarek and Bryan Cranston in “Malcolm in the Middle:
Life Still Isn’t Fair.”: Credits to David Bukach / Disney via Getty Images
Fans weren’t the only ones excited for the reunion; actors Cranston and Muniz were ecstatic to come back to the set. When asked a question about the opening scene of the show, which shows his bare upper half and legs, a parallel to the opening of the original show. Cranston laughs and says, “Taking my clothes off seems to be my whole life … I didn’t know my agent viewed a nudity clause as ‘nudity is essential.’ So here I am, a 70-year-old man parading around in his skivvies – or less,” Cranston said in an interview with The Guardian.
The show has many parallels to its parent series, including the personalities of Malcolm’s brothers, Francis (Christopher Masterson), Reese (Justin Berfield), Dewey (old show: Erik Per Sullivan; new: Caleb Ellsworth-Clark), Jaime (Anthony Timpano), and newly added Kelly (Vaughan Murrae). The boys are supposed to be reckless and eccentric yet somehow lovable altogether. The show portrays this perfectly with Reese pranking Hal, Francis overobsessing about his mom’s to-do-list of what’s most important, and Kelly, who turns out to be exactly like their older brothers.
The similarities between the two shows are what make the story of the reboot so perfect. Many events are the same, letting the series keep the magic that made it quite popular in the first place. The Guardian mentions that it’s “faster and funnier than before, its emotional beats hitting harder and its story hanging together as a cohesive whole.”
It’s clear that although there are years of time between the two sitcoms, Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair proves that it will stay in the hearts of many fans now and those to come.
